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Translated by Charles Timothy Brooks
IN the high church of Upsala the great altar stands in sight, | |
| With candles blazing round it, and torches sparkling bright; | |
| On the steps of that great altar, with devoutly lifted hand, | |
| See, arrayed in shining vestments, Erich, King of Sweden, stand! | |
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| “Great God! who seeks thy shelter forever safe shall dwell! | 5 |
| Who makes the Lord his ally hath wisely done and well!” | |
| He cries, the rest responding, till choir and dome resound,— | |
| “When God the Lord is with us, where shall a foe be found?” | |
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| And while they thus stand praying, right, left, the choir are thrust, | |
| And in a courier rushes, all breathless, grimed with dust: | 10 |
| “God’s mercy now! Skalater! He comes! O King! the Danes, | |
| Seven hundred strong, already are pouring on the plains!” | |
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| The monarch hears him calmly the tale of terror tell: | |
| “Who makes the Lord his ally,” he cries, “hath chosen well!” | |
| In bursts a second courier, all panting with dismay: | 15 |
| “The Dane is at the gate now, and the last bolt gives way!” | |
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| But still the king keeps chanting with brave and lofty swell: | |
| “Who makes the Lord his ally hath wisely done and well!” | |
| Still a third courier enters,—but, ere his news he told, | |
| His head a Danish sabre swift from his body rolled. | 20 |
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| Then rang a wild alarum,—a dismal, deafening cry; | |
| Skalater comes with frenzy demoniac in his eye; | |
| Skalater comes, and with him his seven hundred men; | |
| With altar, king, and country it seemed all over then. | |
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| But, all at once, Sir Erich raised the gold cross in air, | 25 |
| And stretched it toward the heavens, and waved it glittering there; | |
| And of the seven gashes of Jesus every wound | |
| Hundred-fold glory flashes, the foeman to confound. | |
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| Seven hundred men fall prostrate with lowly bended brow, | |
| Mute in the dust, adoring the mighty Conqueror now; | 30 |
| And Erich and his people the song of triumph swell: | |
“Who makes the Lord his refuge shall aye securely dwell!”
END OF VOL. III. | |
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